The following is part of a memorandum from the president of Humana University.
"Last year the number of students who enrolled in online degree programs offered by nearby Omni University increased by 50 percent. During the same year, Omni showed a significant decrease from prior years in expenditures for dormitory and classroom space, most likely because online instruction takes place via the Internet. In contrast, over the past three years, enrollment at Humana University has failed to grow and the cost of maintaining buildings has increased. Thus, to increase enrollment and solve the problem of budget deficits at Humana University, we should initiate and actively promote online degree programs like those at Omni."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
The President of Humana University has stated that by promoting the online degree programs like those at Omni University, they could ensure the increment in enrollment of students and solve the problems of budget deficit at Humana University. This argument is based on the efficacious result obtained in Omni University. However, several unwarranted assumptions have been made by the president. The president assumed that the conditions of Humana University and Omni University is entirely similar. Another assumption made by him is addition of online class would guarantee the increment in enrollment of students. Also, he has assumed that the budget deficit at Humana University is mainly because of the huge money spent on maintenance every year. When these unwarranted assumptions taken as a whole, render argument highly suspect.
Firstly, the president of Humana University has assumed that promotion of online degree programs at Humana University would cause increment in enrollment of students. He has provided the reference of Omni University to strengthen his claim. Yet, there is no supportive assertions to claim that by following the footsteps of Omni University, it would guarantee the efficacious results to Humana University as well. The students at Omni University might have their own reasons for the preferences of online degree programs while such might not be the case in Humana University. Without having additional information in this topic, the argument couldn't be validated.
Secondly, the President has assumed the addition of online class would result in increment of enrollment. The increment of enrollment of students cardinally depends on several parameters. The enrollment at Omni University might have increased due to other factors like good faculty members, good placement post study, shrewd research works being carried out in the University. Unless the president provides supportive claims to assert that addition of online class is sole reason for the increment of enrollment of students, the argument falls apart.
Lastly, the president has assumed that the cost of budget deficit in the Humana University is because of huge money being spent on maintenance of buildings. There might be several other expenditures that aren't being accounted or held responsible for the budget deficit at Humana University. Without any further information regarding this matter, the president has made the baseless assumption of budget deficit resulted by the yearly maintenance of building.
In conclusion, the argument, as it stands now, is considerably flawed due to several unwarranted assumptions made by the president of the Humana University. If the President could provide suitable explanations to the abovementioned assumptions to support his claim, it'd have been possible to fully evaluate the viability of proposed recommendations.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 3 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 437 350
No. of Characters: 2390 1500
No. of Different Words: 180 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.572 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.469 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.941 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 196 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 152 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 119 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 88 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.81 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.443 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.476 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.382 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.382 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.11 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 642, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: couldn't
...information in this topic, the argument couldnt be validated. Secondly, the President ...
^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 204, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: aren't
...ight be several other expenditures that arent being accounted or held responsible for...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, firstly, however, if, lastly, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, well, while, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 19.6327345309 81% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 3.0 11.1786427146 27% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 22.0 28.8173652695 76% => OK
Preposition: 69.0 55.5748502994 124% => OK
Nominalization: 31.0 16.3942115768 189% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2437.0 2260.96107784 108% => OK
No of words: 434.0 441.139720559 98% => OK
Chars per words: 5.61520737327 5.12650576532 110% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.56428161445 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.0088857695 2.78398813304 108% => OK
Unique words: 183.0 204.123752495 90% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.421658986175 0.468620217663 90% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 794.7 705.55239521 113% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59920159681 113% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 46.3242050422 57.8364921388 80% => OK
Chars per sentence: 116.047619048 119.503703932 97% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.6666666667 23.324526521 89% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.14285714286 5.70786347227 90% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.276365426356 0.218282227539 127% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0967924742318 0.0743258471296 130% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0812502943932 0.0701772020484 116% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.166215132745 0.128457276422 129% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0956901103438 0.0628817314937 152% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.4 14.3799401198 107% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 34.26 48.3550499002 71% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.5 12.197005988 111% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 15.32 12.5979740519 122% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.34 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 102.0 98.500998004 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 12.3882235529 73% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.